Getting the bigots on the back foot in Ireland

Sinead is one of tens of thousands of women who have been forced to leave Ireland to access abortion services.

“I’ve no regrets about my abortion and the choice I made,” she said. “The biggest factor was the secrecy—it made me feel I’d done something wrong. Society makes it a secret.”

Eimear remembers arriving in England from Ireland for an abortion in 1993. She starts crying when she remembers having to find a working public phone to call her mother and keep up the pretence of her “great time in London”.

“I don’t regret it,” she said. “I regret the secrecy around it. We have to be trusted to know that we don’t want to be a mother at that time.”

Eimear and Sinead spoke publicly about their abortions for the first time just days ahead of a referendum on limited decriminalisation of abortion in Ireland.

The vote on 25 May could strike a decisive blow against anti-abortionists.

Ireland is being asked whether to “repeal the 8th Amendment to the constitution” (see below).

Added in 1983 the 8th sets the rights of a pregnant woman on an equal footing with the rights of a foetus.

The referendum has led to a huge grassroots movement fighting for a strong Yes vote to smash the 8th Amendment.

Campaigning

Thousands are being drawn into political activity—often for the first time—organising meetings, arguing with voters and knocking on doors.

Eimear and Sinead said the experience of campaigning has helped break down the stigma of talking about their own abortions.

“I’ve told more people in the last 24 hours than I ever have done before,” said Eimear.

Right wing bigots still active

Ireland’s rulers have come under increasing pressure to change the law in recent years.

The reaction to the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 prompted minor changes to the law. Savita died because of complications from a septic miscarriage when she was 17 weeks pregnant.

The 8th Amendment meant doctors refused to perform an abortion because the foetus had a heartbeat. Her death brought a fresh wave of anger over how the Irish state controls women’s bodies.

The Protection of Life bill 2013 allows for abortion in extremely limited circumstances—if the life of the woman is judged to be at acute risk.

It’s been used only a handful of times in five years. Meanwhile there’s still a 14-year sentence for any woman or medical practitioner who seeks to procure an abortion in Ireland.

The 8th does not stop Irish women having abortions—it just stops legal, safe and accessible abortions.

An estimated 3,000 women travel abroad to have an abortion every year, often to London and Liverpool.

The cost stops many more women travelling. And not everyone has the necessary immigration papers or the ability to get time off work.

Sinead, who was 16 when she had her abortion, remembered that “the money had to be found”.

The referendum takes place under the shadow of decades of scandals about the Catholic Church

“In 1993 it was £1,000 to £1,500—there wasn’t that money lying around easily,” she said. “My main feeling was relief but I felt guilt that I’d put the burden on my parents, who had five other children to take care of.”

The Women Help Women organisation estimated that every day at least two people, unable to travel, use abortion pills. They do this without medical attention, often too scared to tell anyone for fear of criminalisation.

And the 8th affects every pregnant woman. Women can be denied life-saving medical treatment if there’s a possibility of harming the foetus.

Brid Smith, People Before Profit TD, locates the strength of the fight for repeal in the grassroots movement.

“The best thing about the campaign has been feet on the streets, and the activism that has opened up” she told Socialist Worker.

“If it was just the Together For Yes campaign (see right) without this movement it would be meaningless.”

Brid stressed that the stakes are high. “This isn’t just about abortion,” she said. “This is about the future of the political shape of Ireland.”

The anti-choice bigots, headed by umbrella organisation Love Both, have filled the streets with posters that equate abortion with killing “pre-born babies”.

Maria founded the group Angels 4 Yes that blocks these distressing images using large theatrical wings.

She experienced two miscarriages and said, “Images like this have no place in the campaign.”

Younger votes are most likely to support Yes, while those over 50 are the ones most determined to retain it.

Mobilised

Evebelle is a student at Dublin Trinity campaigning for Yes. She says there is “huge support” for Yes at the university.

“We got 1,000 Trinity students registered to vote in one day,” she said. “Young people are really mobilised by this.

“It’s been an amazing experience. I’m very much a feminist, and after the referendum I’m not going to run of issues to fight about.”

Brid Smith People Before Profit TD meets Paul on the campaign trail

Canvassing for support has become the central focus for the campaign, with canvasses organised each night. And it’s popular—mass canvassing can attract over a hundred people at weekends.

When Together for Yes activists knocked on Paul’s door in Walkinstown, a suburb of south Dublin, he was happy to show his support.

“I’m definitely voting Yes,” he said. “It should be a choice between a woman and her doctor, and the medical care should happen in Ireland.”

And he touched on the hypocrisy of the anti-choice bigots who pretend to care about the wellbeing of children.

“They say it sounds like you’re going to McDonald’s for a burger and you might choose this or that one,” she said.

What are they repealing?

The 8th amendment was added to the Irish Constitution in 1983, and was partly a reaction to the 1967 Abortion Act in Britain.

It reads “The state acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

Abortion was already illegal in Ireland. But this was an attempt to make it harder to relax the rules.